50th Anniversary of Ernie Simmons Auction marked w/flypast

[rcaf_100]

Early last year, I became a half owner of Yale 3372 with Jim Mattice. This past Saturday, we returned Yale 3372 to the skies over Tillsonburg, Ontario after 19 months of maintenance by myself and a few others

To celebrate, we flew over the nearby site of Ernie Simmons' farm to mark the 50th Anniversary of the auction to the exact day.
The original auction was from September 3-5, 1970, but all of the aircraft (36 Yales, 7 Swordfish plus 30 Cheetah engines) were sold on September 5th.

Eric Dumigan tagged along in a formation flight to mark the occasion

https://www.skiesmag.com/news/commemora ... s-auction/

http://www.airic.ca/html/yale3372flypast.html

Plus some detail shots of 3372 before we finished the annual here:
http://www.airic.ca/html/yale3372rest.html

[JohnB]

I've mentioned it before, but the first issue of Air Classics I ever read had an article on Simmons and the auction.
So in many ways, his story was my introduction to warbird collecting and sales.

Glad to see someone thought to commemorate the event and pay tribute to his legacy.

[Cvairwerks]

Looking good.

Any idea where the Stringbags all ended up?

[Dan K]

Congrats, Shane!

Looking forward to seeing 3372 in Wisconsin in 2021 wink wink nudge nudge.

[DH82EH]

Congratulations Shane!
You have every right to savour this to the utmost.
I'm really happy for you man.

Dan is right. There is nothing quite like arriving at Oshkosh in your own Warbird.
This will be a prize winner for sure.

Andy

[rcaf_100]

Thanks guys

Looking forward to seeing 3372 in Wisconsin in 2021 wink wink nudge nudge.

Dan is right. There is nothing quite like arriving at Oshkosh in your own Warbird.

A few of us Yale owners were planning on having a gathering at OSH this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the NA-64 and the 50th anniversary of the Simmons auction, but you know why those plans got axed.
If the border is open again by July and the world has calmed down a bit, it's definitely a possibility for next summer

This will be a prize winner for sure.

3372 is one of those '10 foot airplanes' where it looks awesome until you get about 10 feet away She has almost 500 hours on her since she was restored, and the airframe shows it.
I don't think she'll be getting a new paint job anytime soon, but hopefully she will emerge in early 2021 with updated and more accurate markings.
One Yale that should get an award or two will be John Vasil's Yale 3456 whenever it gets to KOSH. Patrick Mihalek has been doing a great job restoring her.

Last edited by rcaf_100 on Fri Sep 11, 2020 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

[rcaf_100]

Any idea where the Stringbags all ended up?

From what I can find, there's this:

W5856 flying as G-BMGC with the Royal Navy Historic Flight
'HS164' on static display with CAF in Midland, TX
HS491 (ex-Bob Spence parts source) under restoration at the Malta Aviation Museum
HS503 in storage with the RAF Museum
HS509 (or HS498?) in storage at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin, AB
HS517 fell off the radar after 1979
HS554 restored to airworthy by Bob Spence as C-GEVS (for Ernest Van Simmons), sold to VWoC in 2006 and then to private owners in White Waltham, UK in 2019
'NS122' on display at CASM in Ottawa
Plus examples with unknown ID's stored with Kermit Weeks and the Bristol Heritage Collection (?)